…about digressing from our previous day’s post to share some other thoughts.

I’m thinking that living life on life’s terms can be challenging. Sometimes it feels like giving up. Sometimes it feels like running away to hide. Those feelings usually mean I’m all about self-centered fear. My negative characteristics are fear-based. I’m afraid I’ll lose something I have or not get something I want. That is the spiritually lesser me. In this place I have no peace, no serenity and am likely to actually get physically sick or even trip ‘n fall ‘n break a leg…OFF Broadway!

The spiritually higher me has learned that life is not about me at all! It is about love and service. It is building good character traits and emulating people like Ghandi, Mandela, Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa…not perfect, but having achieved a higher spiritual plane than myself. So far.

I used to have a high-power job for a Fortune 100 company…made a lot of money…bought a lot of “toys”. But I wasn’t happy, peace-filled or serene. It took a few major hits to my health, pride and pocketbook before I got the “aha!” moment.

I chose to give most superfluous belongings away and to live simply. Instead I found a path that would enable me to really help people, animals, why even the very earth I walk on! Mostly through my discovery of Jin Shin Jyutsu. You know that old saying, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he will be able to feed himself forever”?

That’s what Jin Shin Jyutsu is all about. First I learn to take responsibility for my own health and well-being and then I learn to teach others. Now they have the option to take care of themselves and to share their knowledge with others, too.

I know other ways to help others. I also practice Reiki but prefer teaching Jin Shin Jyutsu. I am an ordained minister with years of lay-training to help and comfort others in their time of need. I have adopted abused dogs/cats (one at a time) for many years because I am responsible to assist lesser life forms…though I have often wondered if the plant/animal kingdoms are indeed lesser life forms. Sometimes I consider certain rocks to be more highly evolved than me! Even a rock can help bring healing to human BE-ings. My home was once like a rain-forest with plants and small trees. I nurtured and loved and received their oxygen to help me breathe. I eventually had to find them all good homes or be driven out of my own! Smile.

Strangers are a great blessing. An old woman sat beside me this afternoon. She was reading something out loud that touched her deeply and she began to cry and could not speak. I put my hand on her back. She recovered herself, finished what she was saying and turned to look me in the eye and thank me.

An unknown child in the grocery store caught my eye across the full width of the store, extended her arms and RAN to me, throwing her arms around my legs and hugging me. She was about 5 years old. Never saw her before or since. A young man, very preppy, in his 20’s stopped me on the sidewalk when I was walking my little dog, Eliza Dolittle, and said, “You look like someone I can talk to. Will you pray for me?” No collar to identify me as the ‘churchy’ type (because I’m not), just a baseball cap and some old jeans/sneakers. I took his hands and prayed with him for just a moment. I never saw him before nor have I seen him since. These “miracles” often happen to me. I don’t know why. It is a privilege just to be available to touch, hug, or sigh with someone in distress.

These are the things in life that matter as I travel my spiritual road to fulfill my purpose and the plan for my life created by ??? Universal Energy? God? Karma? Don’t know. Don’t need to know. Something/someone bigger than me. It is my pleasure to help others along the way.

Every day I enjoy peace, serenity, happiness and freedom from self.

Gassho, Namaste, Blessings